It is quite common for stemware to be used to serve beverages or food products such as desserts. Often, it is desirable to use stemware of particular shapes to serve different types of drinks or food products. However, it can be costly and inconvenient to use conventional one-piece crystal, glass or porcelain stemware for certain occasions.
Accordingly, there have been developed a number of disposable types of stemware, typically made of plastic. For convenience of shipping and packaging, some disposable stemware products have been developed utilizing a two-piece construction. Such two-piece constructions typically include an upper portion and a lower portion, where the upper portion is joined to the lower portion to form a complete drinking glass or container. It is common for a series of the upper portions to be nestably stackable, as well as for a series of lower portions to be nestably stackable. As such, the disassembled two-piece stemware may be more easily produced and more compactly packaged and shipped than if each glass were of unitary construction.
Unfortunately, some two-piece plastic stemware constructions that have a lower portion with a broadened base and an upwardly extending stem tend to have upper or lower portions that bind when those respective portions are nestably stacked. Also, known plastic stemware constructions tend to have a base which contacts an underlying surface, such as a table top, over very little surface area. That limited surface area is generally concentrated at a peripheral lower edge. This can lead to instability, if the glass is inadvertently placed, for instance, slightly over an edge of a table. In addition, while potentially acceptably rigid, the bases of prior art plastic stemware also tend to have no additional support in the region where the broadened base transitions into the upward extending stem.
It should be understood that the drawings are not necessarily to scale. While other plan and section views are not included, the details such views would show are considered to be adequately shown in the present views or well within the comprehension of those skilled in the art in light of the present disclosure. It also should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the examples illustrated.